Challenge
by Alis Volat Propris
Summary: Accepted. Series of challenge fics. Neji/Ino


AN: Drabbles based on theme. Challenge accepted .

Music of the update: "Tip of my tongue" Civil wars (I'm not obsessed with them...nope..) "Die alone" Ingrid Michaelson.

Theme: _Maybe_

Ino scowled beneath her porcelain anbu mask. Maybe just once he would loosen up. Maybe she could get him to laugh, or atleast to crack a smile.

_When pigs fly_ she scoffed as she fell through the canopy of trees, only to latch herself onto a branch and land the drop on a kumo ninja. The irony did not miss her, as they grappled with each other mid air. With a cuff across the face using the handle of her sai, she helped him fall the rest of the way, breaking every branch as he landed with a confirming crunch; the thud ended his movement permanently. Hitting the ground running, she tumbled and weaved into defensive formation as enemy ninja surrounded her. Periwnkle eyes gleamed a ferocious look at her partner. The bemused pearlescent glance told her what she needed to know as she made short work of the ninja. It was his look, the only half smile he ever gave her, saying in the short muted Hyuuga sort of way that he would not interfere. He was as amused as he was curious. Ino went to work.

Neji eyed her form, a form he had worked her hard on all year long, that was now flawless. One move flowed into the other, exemplifying her strength while guarding her weaknesses. To say he was pleased with her work was only a compliment and a testament to his own efforts. Tsunade had paired them for these scouting missions and his skepticism had proved invalid as the time went on. He had been forced to admit that perhaps she was the hokage with good reason. She had seen the potential within the two before they had recognized it. She was pleased with the progress the two were making as well which kept them working together a detail Neji found himself grateful for.

Pearlescent eyes caught every detail. Watching Ino at work was poetry in motion with her catlike grace, a grace he had only bolstered. Once he had showed her how much she was loosing in momentum and force by her frame and footwork, it was like watching a fire blaze into life. She dispatched one of the kumo nin with a deft flick of her foot to his throat sending him away from her. She swirelled, spiraling low, as she knocked another off his feet. Rising, her kunai plunged into a women's opening, her jugular left foolishly unguarded, whilst her foot connected with another's face crushing his nose, deep into the cavity of his brain, killing him upon impact. She launched her sai into the chest of a charging nin who did not release his lightning jutsu fast enough. Stupid, leaving himself open like that. She dodged the wind justu, and twirled, flowed, slashing the kneecaps of the kumo ninja without heisitating. She killed her last opponent who tried to run by a clean break of his neck. With a shashay of those hips, she swiveled, kunai in hand to face him.

"You done gaping, Bird boy? Or ready to get to the real work?" She demanded, with a flip of her blonde ponytail as she turned.

She couldn't see it, but Neji felt the irresistible tug at the corner of his mouth.

Theme:_ Letter_

Ino would die, tormented and tortured by Morino Ibiki himself, before she admitted it. Not even a Yamanaka could pry this secret from her mind. She kept this one under lock and key in the deepest corners of her mind and heart, the furthest from suspicion lest he or any other suspicious eevesdroper catch on. Call it paranoia, but Ino was not ready to share her biggest secret, not even with her gigantic bill board browed best friend. It was too close, too tender to allow it to surface, to let it become exposed to the reality she knew was waiting, the fall out. She wasn't ready to deal with the implications her feelings convicted her of.

It was a one page, tattered letter, stained, as it had seen better days. Each fold was well creased, and it had been crumpled a bit with the wear and tear. She kept it with her on the missions they went on. Call it superstition, call it good luck, but having the letter tucked in her shirt beneath the armored vest she wore as an anbu operative was comforting in the middle of a chaos crazed battlefield.

It was rare, something no one would have known or suspected of him and it caused hope to grow to blossom in the darkest recesses of Ino's heart whatever was left after Sasuke had gone anyways. Neji was known for being horrendous at anything resembling writing, and the fact that he had hand written her a letter for her birthday, because he'd forgotten to get a card, was oddly heartfelt in a backwards Hyuuga sort of way. And that was precisely where she kept it, close so that no one would know, though she was certain Shikamaru suspected something. It was better this way.

Theme: _Truth or Dare_

It was entirely ridiculous that the Hyuuga could have such an incredible kekkei genkai, the ability to look into the intuitions and private thoughts of the human emotions and the full spectrum of those emotions. He could decypher human thought based on a glance. It bordered on annoying how well he could read the words unspoken off of other people and in the same fulcrum swing not be able to convey his own damn feelings, Ino thought moodily as she made her way up to her cloud watching teammate and best friend.

She was not imagining things between them. She knew Neji was not exactly a stellar communicator, or had a way with words, but this was ridiculous. Ino did not take uncalculated risks and this time she'd blown it. Anger ultimately masked the rejection she felt and that stung too. Last night over a drunken bout of Sake, and a random game of truth or dare, at his party to celebrate Neji's promotion to anbu, WHICH he had personally invited her to, Ino had admitted her feelings for the chocolate haired ninja.

How she'd gotten into a truth or dare game with the Byakugan user could only be blamed on the copius amounts of sake readily available and refilled when she wasn't looking. How she'd dragged him away from the chocolate bunned weapon's mistress that was his overly clingy teammate was sheer damn skill. But his refusal of her advances had hurt, drunk or not. True, he hadn't rejected her outright. He had merely refused her advances. _Effeminate prick_ she thought without the feeling behind the words. It was hard to be angry at someone she considered herself in love with, but Ino made the effort all the same.

Shikamaru eyed her, knew exactly what this was about and muttered a mendokusai. In truth, Ino was not used to putting herself out on the line. Normally it was whatever guy she was dating that week that would confess their absurd feelings. Ino had rarely met anyone, Sasuke aside, she'd been forced to work for, and that was what irritated her the most about this situation.

"It's good for you to have to work for it." Shikamaru told her, cigarette smoke wafting.

Ino plucked the cigarette from his mouth, grinding it beneath her ninja heels. "Oye! What the hell-" The lazy Nara exclaimed.

"Shika! This is serious!" Ino interrupted, as she began to pace. Shikamaru eyed the fiery blonde and realized with a start, that it actually _was _serious, far more serious than even he had expected of her.

"Sit down before you ruin the grass." Shikamaru told her, mind racing as he was trying to formulate some strategy of a plan to make this better and ultimately keep her from taking it out on him. Shikamaru failed miserably. He was the strategical specialist of anbu operations, but as it turned out, was hopeless when it came to romance and women.

"NO! What the hell am I supposed to do with this now? Everything's gone to hell in a hand basket-" Ino cried before seeing the pearlescent eyed Hyuuga heading her way.

"Gah!" She exclaimed, turning as she tried to pull herself together.

Shikamaru did not move from his place on the grass, did not rise to her defense, but sat there. Worrying about it did no good now.

He merely waved as he pulled out another cigarette defiantly and began puffing away on his cancer stick. It was proof he was a lazy good for nothing Nara when Ino needed him most. She sent a scathing glare his way.

"Neji, this is an unexpected visit." Shikamaru greeted as he took a long drag on his cigarette. Ino turned pale. Her look quickly changed from one of fear to one of haughty pride.

"Hyuuga." She greeted stiffly, arms crossed as she stared down the Byakugan user. Leave it to Ino to suddenly turn the tides.

Neji was startled by the fire behind those eyes and the bile in her tone.

Pearlescent Byakugan took careful note of her complexion, the way her eyebrows twitched. Her tone and demeanor suggested that she was angry, but he wasn't sure how being mindful of her honor and his own could have construed such a complex. He had come to talk to her about everything that had happened, and she was looking for a fight, by the looks of it.

"Shikamaru." Neji greeted. "Ino. Do you have a moment?" Neji asked.

"No. Actually I-" Ino began.

"She does. All the time in the world " Shikamaru interrupted with a wry grin as he wrapped a hand around her mouth and pushed her forward. Sharp teeth on his hand made him release before she drew blood

"Shika!" Ino snarled.

"I'll just be going." Shikamaru slipped through her grip, as Ino realized the shadow jutsu binding her feet to keep her from following him, and beating some righteous fury into him.

_I'll kill him this time for sure _she thought, jaw clenched.

Neji, surprised by the unexpected support from the Nara, waited for a moment, until Shikamaru's pineapple hair faded in the distance then turned to the golden haired Yamanaka girl. Ino appeared confused, unsure of herself, an interesting place for the normally sassy and confident woman. Neji could not help the confidence it gave him to be the one that made her loose her edge. It meant she was taking this, him, seriously.

"I-" He started.

"Before you say anything I just wanted to let you know that anything I was stupid enough to utter last night was absolutely without a doubt untrue." Ino stated. "You know how stupid people get when they get drunk-"

It was cute, how she was trying to deny what she had probably held in for quite some time. Her confession, though untimely in her tipsy stupor, was actually adorable, profound in it's simplicity and heartfelt. And then she had said she liked his hair and passed out, curling as she used his lap for a pillow. He hadn't expected something like that from her.

It was fact that Ino was not who he had originally thought her to be, and layer by layer he had peeled back the stereotypes and the hype and discovered her true worth. How it had taken him this long to notice was surely proof of his distraction with missions. Neji found it a little quaint how she tried to play it off like it was nothing. Particularly because he could see the truth of the matter for himself.

It helped that he could not help his own interest in her. She was not only beautiful, but talented with a fiery disposition. She was everything the Hyuuga were not, and perhaps that was where the initial attraction had founded itself. Neji was not one to be bound by anyone's assumptions.

"Well that's a shame. I was about to ask if you wanted to get din-" Neji began with a shrug.

Ino hesitated for only a moment.

"Love to. Thought you'd never ask" Ino's formerly haughty demeanor melted to saccharine spun sugar as those blue eyes glazed over, long lashes flickering at him in a most pleasing way, looping her arm through his.

Neji felt the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, but had a hard time keeping it contained with this beautiful kunoichi on his arm.

"Thought you might." Neji smiled as he let her lead the way to the Yakuniku.

A tuft of pineapple black hair and a waft of cigarette smoke wafted in the breeze. "You're welcome" He muttered, followed by a mendoukusai as he shoved his hands in his pockets and meandered back to his house.

_ Messy: _

There was never anything quite as satisfying as mussing the stuffy branch Hyuuga's hair. She ran her fingers through it, drowning in him as he kissed her senseless, as she breathed in that satisfying smell of pine and listened to his sharp intake of breathe. Victory. She loved making him as breathless as she felt at his proximity, loved bringing him to her level. Neji himself was good looking, tone, firm and had those dazzling pearlescent eyes that always looked mischevious with her when no one else was around them. Who would have thought the Uptight Branch member would have a rebellious streak in him? Ino could hardly fault him after all she was getting what she wanted. But his hair was a sense of pride for him, pride he abandoned completely when he was making out with her. The feeling was mutual, he enjoyed mussing her blonde tresses almost as much as she did mussing his.


End file.
